National Tour - Winter 06

North Sails Race Clinic National Tour 2006

Well over 300 people attended the five North Sails Race Clinic events held in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Tauranga in July and August 2006.

Organised by Crew.org.nz, and supported by North Sails NZ and Trade A Boat magazine, the event attracted keelboat and centreboard sailors from throughout the country, with a number flying in to Auckland and Wellington to make the most of the two, two-day intensive Clinics at the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club and Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Evening clinics were also held at Bucklands Beach Yacht Club, Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club, and Naval Point Club Lyttleton.

The national Race Clinic tour was hosted by renowned American sailing coach Bill Gladstone.

Bill Gladstone (pictured, left) is the author and creator of the NorthU Racing Seminars on Racing Tactics, Sail Trim and Boat Speed, and thousands of people have graduated from his seminars over the years..

Bill believes that part of the attraction of sailboat racing is the breadth of skills required for success. “You must know sails and sail trim, boat handling and crew work, tactics, rules, and weather; and you must be able to determine which of those many facets is critical to success at this moment in the race,” he elaborates.

More Clinics are planned for summer 2007 and beyond.

“Sailing is definitely a sport in which the more you learn, the more you realise you don’t know,” says Zoe Wilde, who runs sailing website Crew.org.nz and first founded the Race Clinics a year ago. Around 12 Clinics have been held in total, on a variety of topics ranging from weather and navigation through to boat handling, trim, short handed sailing, women's racing, and race specific clinics.

“I have been lucky to crew with some extremely good sailors, who have never failed to help me to improve by sharing their knowledge and experience about both the fundamentals and the finer elements of racing,” she explains.

2005 New Zealand Sailor of the Year, Ray Haslar, who has numerous victories to his name in local and offshore competitions aboard his Davidson designed keeler, Jive Talkin’, places emphasis on knowledge as a success factor in racing:

“If you are a tradesman, 80% of doing the job is know-how, and the 20%, which lies in making a nice job of it, is skill between one carpenter and another. Likewise, when sailing on a yacht, preparation is most important, and the remainder of your success is attributed to good workmanship and having keen yachtsmen around you,” he says.

Richard Bicknell of North Sails, which is sponsoring the national tour, believes that while boat owners invest thousands of dollars in improving their equipment and putting bells and whistles on their boats, there is no replacement for knowledge, and knowledge comes cheaply by comparison. “This is why North Sails backs and supports this event,” he explains.





Participant comments:

Bill was very very polished, a great presenter!

I enjoyed the race clinic held at Naval Point Club, I was reminded of all the things I should be doing and looking at while sailing and explained why.
Yes I would attend another clinic next year

Worthwhile - made you appraise the basics of your sailing

Yes. Lots of useful information and clear, thoughtful, and knowledgeable instructor The Speaker was very good and kept us interested with a lot of information in a very short time

Yes - it is always good to get theory explained to simply. Now this I can apply this to my sailing and know what I am trying to achieve, devise a plan and execute having a better understanding of the background information.

I really enjoyed the graphical imagery of the speed shapes changing as different controls were altered and the different combination of stills, videos and graphics from actual photos.

You think you know everything but you don’t, even if you have heard it before it is good to get reminded of common sense.

It answered so many questions I have had about trimmin and tactics that no one could explain to me.

The clinic clarified some aspects and brought focus back to technique in mid-winter. It also caused me to read a couple of sailing books again, and raised thoughts about what needed attention before the new season.

Bill Gladstone was able to hold every one's attention for the whole session.

Presented some very good material and tied together ideas I had heard before in a coherent way.

Bill was fab, really thorough, knowledgable, and he had an excellent sense of humour, which was essential for two eight hour days! I like the fact that he'd make a point perhaps on a slide, and then show you in a kind of computer game and then show you live footage too. Awesome!